Radio

Depending on the role, Ms. Richard's voice ran the gamut from silky and
sensual to harsh and abrasive. So is it any wonder that on occasion,
over the years, she lent her vocal expression to the medium that
best presents it?

Here are some of the radio programs she worked on or appeared on as
a guest. Information is a bit sketchy; modest details and few dates.
Can't say yet whether most of these were series or one-time shots.

According to
this article at the BBC website, Wendy was also to have participated
in a radio series entitled Letters to Ambridge celebrating the
50th anniversary of The Archers radio serial. However, as of
yet, I have no evidence whether this program of hers actually took place
or not. It was scheduled for January 2001.

Radio Details

Dad's Army

General

After the surprising success in the 1970s of the television series of this name, most of the
episodes were transcribed into and broadcast as radio productions. Ms.
Richard participated in four of these. In May of 1974, she recorded the
episodes
Mum's Army, The King Was in His Counting House and
War Dance. Interesting, in the latter of these three, she plays a
third character, Violet Gibbons. She was brought back in May of
1975 to record My British Buddy as, of course, Shirley.

Although a number of the radio adaptations were released on LPs, none of
Ms. Richard's episodes are among the collections. However, it has come
to my attention that her radio episodes, in MP3 format, have been
available recently on the Usenet newsgroup
alt.binaries.sounds.radio.oldtime. The episodes appear at irregular
intervals (or by request) and are usually distributed as twenty or so
logical packages which must be melded together (typically by one's
newsreader software) into a single .MP3 file for listening.

Just a Minute

General

This is a clever little game show that has been running for some decades
on the British high-brow Radio
Four
station. The rules are deceptively simple: a guest must talk non-stop
about an assigned topic without changing the subject, repeating himself (or
herself), or pausing. Of course, this is much harder than it sounds, but
everyone involved seems to have a lot of fun in the process. The BBC's
Hitchhiker's Guide
has more info
about the rules and the history of the game. EastEnders fan Andy Clews notes
that "just like
Call My Bluff, it's just a bit of fun (often hilarious, in
fact) and is a good test of wit, articulation and word power. Wendy was
pretty good at this, and she obviously has a good way with words."

Ms. Richard guest-starred on the show repeated over at least 15
years, appearing for the first time on a broadcast aired on 12 May 88.
Her style was uniquely hers, of course. When she launched into her
attempts at 60-second discourses, she tended to talk about her own
experiences; so, besides being most entertaining, these offer an added
bonus of providing some interesting insights into her attitudes and
likes and dislikes about many things.

Legal, Decent, Honest & Truthful

This program, which aired on BBC Radio Four, was a comedy about the life
and trials of a radio advertisement writer named Ken Handley (played by
Martin Jarvis). According to the
RadioHaHa
website, there were two series of the show produced: one in 1984 and the
next in 1986, both of six episodes. The humor of the series is mild and
pleasing, the language is
G-rated
(at least, in the episodes I've heard), and the scenes of each show are
interspersed with odd, often bizarre, pseudo-commercial announcements.
While the series is a jab at the advertising industry (think of the
opposite of all the adjectives in the title . . .), it doesn't have
nearly the sting of other industry satires, such as that, say, which
Made in Canada
administers to the world of television production. Much of the appeal of
LDH&T is in listening to how the various characters speak to
and interact with each other. Overall, the show is funny, well-written,
and certainly worth a listen. Even years later, Wendy recalled the show
favorably, saying it "was very enjoyable" working on the show.

Wendy appeared in at least four of the first-season (1984) episodes,
where she provided the voice for June, the London ad agency's office
secretary who's caught up in Handley's schemes and predicaments. Wendy
gets a few punchlines, though mostly she's supporting the other main
characters. She's instantly recognizable, with her "glass" voice and
impeccable timing. As a bonus, one gets a delightful echo of Pauline
Fowler poking through here and there, especially when June's peeved.

The radio series is not presently available commercially, though one can
find recordings of the show circulating around, if one looks hard
enough.

Michael Parkinson

On 9 Oct 05, Wendy was a featured guest on this popular
BBC 2 Sunday
morning talk show. The interview occurred just a few days
before a new Carry On Christmas DVD set was to be released, so
the timing was probably not coincidental. In any case, the
interview (a little over 15 minutes in length) is a delightful listen,
with both Michael Parkinson and Wendy seeming at ease and speaking
freely. There are the usual questions about her life and work:
Wendy speaks at length about her desire to
have done more movies; some of the consequences of her recurring
illness; her early days on television; offers kind words about her
colleague, Barbara Windsor; and provides a glimpse into the total
commitment required of actors working on EastEnders.

Steve Wright In The Afternoon

On 25 Nov 00, Wendy did an interview on this lively
mid-afternoon
talk show. I suspect the appearance was probably part of the
publicity for her new book, which had just come out a few weeks earlier.
The interview seemed to go pretty well; for about ten minutes, she
answered questions about her career, her life, and her new
autobiography, and held her own well against the host's sometimes
facetious remarks. The transcript of the show
(which I doubt will be broadcast again any time soon) conveys some new
and interesting insights on various subjects, though you really have to
have heard her talk in her own words to properly appreciate the
interview. As is normal with this sort of show, her part was almost
certainly broadcast live, so the conversation between Wendy and Wright
isn't quite as tight and polished as, say, her well-edited
Heaven and Earth
television interview last year.

Wireless Wise

Wendy noted that she had done a lot of work for Radio 4. One of those
bits was an appearance on a game show called Wireless Wise,
noted a web page of The
Times. This show aired in late November of 2000.
The premise is that a panel of "experts" is asked questions about
"wireless" [radio] history, and The Times seems to have seen
this as an exercise in esoterica. According to the article, joining
Wendy were Gloria Hunniford, Frank Delaney, Libby Purves, and Steve
Wright.

Note that the
Wireless Wise web page (which has a very comely photo of Wendy)
refers to her participation in a new series of the show, but with a
somewhat different list of co-stars than those noted above.

Woman's Hour

Another piece Wendy did for Radio 4 was a short ten-minute talk show interview,
which was originally aired on 9 Jan 07.
The talk is light and casual, with Wendy mostly speaking of the work she
will be doing after leaving EastEnders. Especially of
interest is her detailed and passionate explanation of just why she left
the show after so many years.